Customer Reviews

War Heroes: True Stories of Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book for a graduate seminar on Ethics. Many soldiers who have acted courageously and survived their ordeal, have either not been very forthcoming in communicating their courageous acts or had a difficult time explaining what motivated them to risk their lives. However Kent DeLong, who at the time of writing his book War Heroes, was the attending physician of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, conducted personal interviews with a few MOH recipients. One case in particular is the courageous actions of Major Patrick Henry Brady; a helicopter air ambulance pilot during the Vietnam War. When reflecting on his experience Brady said, "You don't think about the danger as much as you think about helping men who need you. In Vietnam, I was faced with a series of obstacles: enemy fire, terrain, or aircraft limitations. I worked my way through those obstacles and brought human beings to safety." Brady's quote sounds like a good definition of Aristotelian virtue ethics about courage. When one reads the myriad of MOH citations, one quickly finds that the vast majority of soldiers recognized by their nation to have acted courageously did so out of friendship and love of their comrades in arms. Thus, Aristotle believes that a soldier is not acting courageously when he is reacting to danger with a thoughtless or blind act of emotional anger or revenge.

I recommend this work to anyone interested in philosophy, and ethics.

If you have an interest in history, and most especially these amazing men who put so much on the line for thier friends and country. This is the book for you.
Facinating detailed stories of what these men did to recieve thier awards.
I just wish we in this country were a little more careful about how we use the word hero. Because after you read this book, it will be hard to think of a basketball player, or movie star as hero.
A fun read

Very inspiring accounts of the actions of Medal of Honor Recipients. Easy to read and you don't want to put it down.

I read this book for a graduate seminar on Ethics. Many soldiers who have acted courageously and survived their ordeal, have either not been very forthcoming in communicating their courageous acts or had a difficult time explaining what motivated them to risk their lives. However Kent DeLong, who at the time of writing his book War Heroes, was the attending physician of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, conducted personal interviews with a few MOH recipients. One case in particular is the courageous actions of Major Patrick Henry Brady; a helicopter air ambulance pilot during the Vietnam War. When reflecting on his experience Brady said, "You don't think about the danger as much as you think about helping men who need you. In Vietnam, I was faced with a series of obstacles: enemy fire, terrain, or aircraft limitations. I worked my way through those obstacles and brought human beings to safety." Brady's quote sounds like a good definition of Aristotelian virtue ethics about courage. When one reads the myriad of MOH citations, one quickly finds that the vast majority of soldiers recognized by their nation to have acted courageously did so out of friendship and love of their comrades in arms. Thus, Aristotle believes that a soldier is not acting courageously when he is reacting to danger with a thoughtless or blind act of emotional anger or revenge.

I recommend this work to anyone interested in philosophy, and ethics.

I wanted very much to give this five stars, but "minor" factual errors caused me to doubt the whole. The biggest error I saw was about Lewis L. Millett. "In 1960, he started the U.S. Army Rangers"(p.133). I was also amazed to find out that a K-bar knife has a ten inch blade. These are just a couple of things that jumped out at me.
Military readers have a keen eye for detail, and glorious deeds may be doubted due to sloppy editing and poor fact checking. I suspect that this book is basically true, but don't make me work at it. Revise and republish.